Born in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium into a family of Manouche Gypsies, Jean Reinhardt learned to play several instruments such as the banjo, violin and guitar from an early age; he spent most of his youth in Gypsy encampments close to Paris. His family made a living from crafting furniture, but included several amateur musicians who inspired Reinhardt. Eventually, Reinhardt was given a banjo-guitar, at which point he stopped playing the violin. During this period, he was inspired by two older Gypsy musicians, Gusti Mahla and Jean Castro. Able to make a living from his music from his teen years onwards playing in bal-musette halls in Paris, Reinhardt received little formal education until his adult life; he was taught the rudiments of literacy by fellow band member Stéphane Grappelli.
At the age of eighteen, Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Florine "Bella" Mayer, his first wife. They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper; consequently, their home was full of this highly inflammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burnt. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.
His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilitation and practice, Reinhardt relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. Hence, he played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and managed to use the two injured digits only for chord work. After regaining his ability to play, Reinhardt resumed his career playing Parisian cafes. According to one story, during his period of recovery, Reinhardt was introduced to the aesthetics of American jazz when he purchased a 78rpm disc of "Dallas Blues" by Louis Armstrong at an Orléans flea market.
In 1934, Reinhardt and Parisian violinist Stéphane Grappelli were approached by hot club chief Pierre Nourry with the idea of forming a forming a new hot club group. Thus, the Quintette du Hot Club de France was formed, with Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola on double bass. Occasionally, Chaput was replaced by Reinhardt's best friend and fellow Gypsy Pierre "Baro" Ferret. As the group had no true percussion section, percussion was instead provided by the group's guitarists; the Quintette du Hot Club de France thus became one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments.
Jean Sablon was the first singer to record with the Quintette, resulting in more than thirty collaborations from 1933 onwards. Vocalist Freddy Taylor participated on a few songs, such as "Georgia on My Mind" and "Nagasaki". A long line of recordings for Decca, HMV and Ultraphone ensured long-lasting international success for the Quintette.
As a composer, Reinhardt wrote several influential, highly original tunes recorded by the Quintette, ranging from the dulcet ballads "Daphne", "Nuages", and "Manoir de mes rêves", to mad swingers such as "Minor Swing" and the ode to his record label of the 1930s, "Stomping at Decca". With the passing of time, many of his songs became jazz standards in their own right.
Reinhardt also experimented with recordings outside the "comfort zone" of the Quintette; in March 1933 Reinhardt recorded two takes each of "Parce que je vous aime" and "Si, j'aime Suzy", vocal numbers with lots of guitar fills and great guitar support, using three guitarists along with an accordion lead, violin, and bass. In August of the following year, recordings were also made with more than one guitar (Joseph Reinhardt, Roger Chaput, and Django), including the first recording by the Quintette. In both years, it should be noted, the great majority of recordings featured a wide variety of horns, often in multiples, piano, etc.
Throughout his career, Reinhardt played and recorded with many American jazz legends such as Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Rex Stewart (who later stayed in Paris), and a led a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong. Later in his career, he performed with Dizzy Gillespie in France.
The outbreak of war in 1939 broke up the Quintette, with Grappelli remaining in London where the group was playing and Reinhardt returning to France. During the war years he led a big band, another quintet with clarinettist Hubert Rostaing in place of Grappelli, and after the liberation of Paris, recorded with such visiting American jazz artists as Mel Powell, Peanuts Hucko, and Ray McKinley. In 1946, Reinhardt took up the electric guitar and toured America as a soloist with the Duke Ellington Band, but his appearances were poorly received.
Some of his recordings on electric guitar late in his life are bop escapades where his playing sounds frantic and jagged, a world apart from the jubilant swing of old. However, starting in January 1946, Reinhardt and Grappelli held several sporadic reunions where the bop influences were more subtly integrated into the old swing format of the glory days of the Quintette. In the 1950s, Reinhardt became more reclusive, remaining in Europe, playing and recording sporadically until his death from a stroke on 16 May 1953 in Fontainebleau, France.
Honeysuckle
Django Reinhardt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When they see you out with me
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
When you're passin' by flowers droop and sigh,
And I know the reason why
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Don't buy sugar
You just have to touch my cup
You're my sugar
It's sweeter when you stir it up
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Don't buy sugar
You just have to touch my cup
You're my sugar
It's sweeter when you stir it up
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
The lyrics of Django Reinhardt's song Honeysuckle Rose are centred around the singer's affection towards his love interest. The opening lines, "Every honey bee fills with jealousy, When they see you out with me," suggest that the singer acknowledges the beauty and desirability of his partner, who attracts attention from others. The following lines, "Goodness knows, You're my honeysuckle rose," indicate the depth of his admiration towards her, using the metaphor of a honeysuckle rose, which is a fragrant and attractive flower.
The second verse continues the use of floral imagery, with the singer describing how flowers wilt and sigh as he passes by with his partner. He acknowledges that his partner's beauty is the reason for this reaction, reinforcing his admiration for her. The chorus repeats the metaphor of a honeysuckle rose and emphasises the sweetness and satisfaction he derives from their relationship. The lines, "Don't buy sugar, You just have to touch my cup, You're my sugar, It's sweeter when you stir it up," imply that the singer's partner is the source of his happiness and fulfilment.
The final verse again employs the imagery of honey and sweetness, evoking a sense of sensuality and intimacy between the couple. The line, "When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips, Seems the honey fairly drips," expresses the singer's intense pleasure in their physical relationship. The repetition of the chorus emphasises the centrality of his partner to his life and the depth of his love for her.
Line by Line Meaning
Every honey bee fills with jealousy
Others feel envious of our relationship
When they see you out with me
When others see you with me, they get envious
Goodness knows
Indeed
You're my honeysuckle rose
You are the most important person in my life, like a honeysuckle rose
When you're passin' by flowers droop and sigh,
Even the flowers express sadness when you leave
And I know the reason why
I am aware why flowers droop when you're not around
Don't buy sugar
There's no need to add more sweetness
You just have to touch my cup
Your mere touch is sufficient to add sweetness
You're my sugar
You are the source of the sweetness in my life
It's sweeter when you stir it up
Things get even better when you're around
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
When I kiss and taste your lips
Seems the honey fairly drips
It's as if honey is literally dripping from your lips
Goodness knows
Indeed
You're my honeysuckle rose
You are the most important person in my life, like a honeysuckle rose
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Andy Razaf, Thomas Waller
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Peter Friedman
There are some extraordinary features that stand out just as much as the things which first prompted me to post the YouTube clip here, many months ago.
The first thing that strikes you is that Django has done much more with the sustain derived from amplification than merely to just let the notes resonate for longer.
He has essentially ditched the high speed Banjo-style (his instrument prior to guitar) right hand aspect of his traditional Gypsy guitar technique of which he is still the undisputed master.
His spectacularly dexterous outpouring of that impossibly rapid but tonally attenuated 'ping' is suddenly conspicuous by its almost complete absence in this piece and something infinitely more expressive (complete with a characteristically playful assortment of growling and barking effects) bearing little, if any resemblance to his acoustic sound is there in its place.
Unfortunately, to my jaded ear, until I first reflected upon the extraordinary transition that this recording represents, the style initially sounded far too pedestrian to me for me to endure, let alone admire.
It seemed too consistent with a certain kind of smoothness which I have always found irritating: the soundtrack of fifties and early sixties movies and TV that my seventies musical sensibilities found to be too conventional to be worthy of anything but derision.
Now I know that this initial impression was, in this particular case, utterly unrepresentative.
What you are listening to here was not just extraordinarily new and different at the time: it set precedents for what was to come.
It was what rock and roll guitar playing would eventually take to its very heart only a few years later, from a musician who never lived long enough to see this happen. His discoveries of the possibilities opened up by the electric guitar blossomed into the vital instrumental underpinnings of a vibrant new genre, one which was as eager as he was to both break with and yet still incorporate the conventions of its predecessors.
51Merc
My first guitar teacher used Django to inspire me when I got frustrated. He'd say, "Listen to this man play... When you use technique to drive the soul in your playing, it's ok... But when you use soul to drive the technique in your playing, it's magical." And for a long time, I didn't know where he was actually coming from, as I had no knowledge of Django's finger injury... I think he kept it from me deliberately so I would discover it one day and be astounded even more.
Your Guitar Workshop
I love this: "When you use technique to drive the soul in your playing, it's ok... But when you use soul to drive the technique in your playing, it's magical."
Michele 'HemlokHex' White
❤❤❤
jazztom86
what he does here is just unbelievable... delay, outside lines, octaves... and all this 12 years before Wes' first recording... incredibly modern...
Mike Boulevard
Django had so many of these techniques we consider “common” down pat before it was even invented. He is the blueprint
LRN_News
Barney Kessel sounded pretty advanced in 1940s as well.
Dan S
Much love to Django and Wes, but Charlie Christian was doing alot of similar stuff around the same time, which is where Wes got alot of his sound from
Todd Perkins
For some reason I hadn't heard this before. His tone and attack are really different on electric, but I think in many ways it's even better than the early recordings! And this pairing with Ellington is really beautiful. He was just getting started into the next step in his evolution...I wish he'd had more time on the planet.
DevilsAdvocate
Just watched Gibson's recent video of Tony iommi and he said Djangos music is what got him to keep playing after he lost his 2 fingers. Crazy to me lol
Catperson1013
Beautiful sound! I am just beginning to learn about Django Reinhardt's music. This past summer, I read a biography of Django. After that, I was determined to hear his music. I was amazed to find a double CDset of his recordings with the Hot Club Quintet. Now, this recording on You Tube is my first introduction to Django's playing an electric guitar. What a gifted artist he was!